Progressive cross-linking of electronic computers has meanwhile led to the development of computer languages that are independent of the platform and that allow the exchange of information between different computer architectures. Locally installed programs (e.g., Web browsers) first translate the transmitted data into machine commands that are specific to the terminal device and so capable of being executed or interpreted. The independence from the architecture is achieved by means of following a defined structure for the transmitted data stream, whereby this generally, however, is also accompanied by an increased data volume, for example when compared to optimisations specific to the device. There is obviously, therefore, a demand for compression and decompression methods for such transmitted data streams.